One woman told the newspaper Boulton grabbed her buttocks at a bar in 2015. Nate Boulton of Des Moines touched them inappropriately during separate incidents.

Boulton released a statement apologizing to the women and adding he would not "disqualify what these women felt at the time or in hindsight". "But I am not going to offer any additional context to this, other than to say if someone's perspective is that it was inappropriate and I crossed a line and I misread a situation in a social setting, I do apologize", he said.

In March, GOP Majority Leader Bill Dix, R-Shell Rock, resigned from the Senate after he was captured on video kissing a female lobbyist in a Des Moines bar.

And Reynolds fired a longtime friend and director of the Iowa Finance Authority, Dave Jamison, after receiving accounts of him sexually harassing employees. A third woman made a similar claim.

The statement went on to say the women were social peers, and his actions "in no way equate to the disgraceful actions taken by men across the country and in the Iowa Statehouse who have assaulted, harassed and threatened women with workplace consequences".

Responding to the allegations is an "embarrassing conversation for me to have today", but can serve as lesson to others, Boulton said in his statement. He told the Register he does not anticipate making changes in his campaign.